for correct thinking and for the attainment of valid judg

ments.

§ 3. Now, when we draw a truth or a statement from another truth contained in a proposition, we are said to "infer" or " to move an inference," and certain laws are to be observed in this operation, which are calculated to prevent us from making mistakes or arriving at false conclusions.

The three primary laws of thought are well known; they are:

1. The law of identity. Whatever is is, or that everything is identical with itself.

2. The law of contradiction. Nothing can both be and not be.

3. The law of excluded middle. Everything must either be or not be, a thing must either be the one or the other, it must be either yes

or no.

By neglecting the laws of correct thinking we certainly make mistakes, fall into erroneous reasoning, without being able to find out where our mistake was made. We have often to go back to the point from which we started in order to discover the point where we deviated from the right path, and consequently arrive at some point other than our intended destination. Such mistakes are called "fallacies."

In our search for truth we not only endeavour to arrive at a valid result but to arrive at it promptly and by the quickest way. We employ various modes which we deem best and most convenient for our purpose. These modes are called "methods." It is Logic applied to all sciences in their various departments.

Make good use of your time, for fast
Time flies, and is for ever past;
To make more time for yourself begin
By order-method-discipline.

The ways of procedure or methods are various-Inductive or Deductive, Analytical or Synthetical.

The Inductive or Analytical Method is that which,

proceeding from fact and knowledge gathered by experience, endeavours to establish general principles and universal laws (analytical, from the Greek ȧváλvois, analysis, from ȧvá +λvew=to loose, which means separating or cutting the whole into parts).

The Deductive or Synthetical Method, on the contrary, proceeds from general nothings, putting them together and then trying to deduce a result and predict an event. It is called synthetical, from synthesis (the Greek σύν + τιθέναι to set), or combining or putting together the parts into systematic whole simple notions or ideas, and this explains facts known to us.

=

The Inductive or Analytical Method is also called regressive, for it proceeds regressively in its investigations, from the individual or particular judgment based upon experience, to universal propositions and real principles.

The Deductive or Synthetic Method is called progressive, for it proceeds progressively, starting from universal notions, laws, and real principles, and descends to particulars which we know from experience and can control by

our senses.

CHAPTER VI

AESTHETICS

§ 1. ANOTHER part of Psychology treats of feelings-feelings which are caused by the beautiful and admirable, or by their counterparts, the ugly and contemptible.

66

There are certain fibres in our senses, especially in the senses of hearing and seeing, by which we are enabled to derive a sensation of pleasure, when listening to certain sounds or looking at certain objects. The numerous spectacles of nature in her glory, splendour, and immensity, a symphony of Beethoven or Mozart, the aspect of a picture or statue, of Titian's Madonna or of the Venus of Milo, the reading or hearing of a beautiful poem, produce in us an agreeable sensation and send a thrill of joy through our hearts. We utter a cry of admiration : It is beautiful, exquisite; it is harmonious and graceful!" or we remain perfectly silent, finding no words to express our feelings. Although we do not possess the object, yet we derive a pleasure from seeing it, and never cease to admire it; nay, we even seem to discover on every subsequent occasion something new in it. The beautiful produces in us an agreeable sensation, whilst, on the other hand, anything that is the cause of a feeling of pain and disgust we call "ugly." "Whatever is ugly," says Nietzsche, "weakens and troubles man. It reminds him of deterioration, danger, and impotence. Whenever man is depressed, he has a sense of the proximity of something "ugly." Now the beautiful necessarily produces an agreeable feeling, but not everything agreeable is also beautiful. For the

pleasure derived from beauty is the consequence of an impression produced upon our minds through the medium of our senses-not all the senses, however, but only through the so-called higher or intellectual senses, i.e. hearing and seeing. A thing agreeable to the touch or smell is not always beautiful, whilst there is nothing of the beautiful at all in a delicious fruit when we eat it, or in a dish that pleases our palate. We never speak of a beautiful taste in an apple, or of a beautiful smell in an odour, but only of an agreeable one.

§ 2. The "beautiful is also quite distinct from the "useful"; in fact, the really beautiful thing-that in which our sole pleasure is derived from the contemplation of its beauty or from listening to its harmonious sounds-is, as a rule, useless (useless in the material sense, but probably useful from a moral point of view). The pleasure and enjoyment, therefore, which arise from our contemplation of " beauty is a disinterested one, free from materialism or desire. It was the German philosopher Kant who first pointed out this disinterestedness and freedom from desire.

66

Thus the ear and the eye, the two great avenues to the mind, are the special organs that communicate or transmit to the brain, or the nervous centre, all the impressions which we receive from the contemplation of colour, form, shape, and movement in objects, or from the hearing of certain sounds, accompanying the impressions with a feeling of pleasure or pain. This pleasure is called the "æsthetic" pleasure; it is the effect of beauty," which addresses itself, through the medium of the senses, to our sentiment, reason, and imagination; warms, elevates, purifies, and ennobles our soul, and is distinguished by the absence of desire, which always seeks possession and must therefore cause a feeling of pain and suffering. branch of Philosophy or of Psychology which treats of these sentiments and pleasures is "Esthetics." A man is pleasantly impressed, but he does not know why; he does not even in most cases inquire into and analyse the cause. The philosophic aim of Esthetics is to inquire, investigate, and define. The layman feels, but he cannot express his feelings in words or works, as the philosopher

The

and artist can.

The ordinary man only feels, but the others also reflect. In the first it is simply instinct, sentiment, or intuition, which to a certain extent is also shared by the animals; in the others it is reflection and speculation.

§ 3. "Esthetics" therefore, as it would seem, is the science of Beauty; in fact, it has been defined as such, as "the science of the Beautiful," treating of the feelings, sensations, and pleasures which its aspect produces. But this definition is, if not entirely wrong, at least not quite correct. When we speak of a military science we do not mean by it the science of victory, but that of military tactics, which should lead to victory but might lead to defeat. Esthetics therefore has to treat not only of the Beautiful, but also of the Ugly.

The Beautiful produces a feeling of love and attraction, of pleasure and enjoyment; the Ugly, a feeling of disgust. The majestic beauty of nature, on the other hand, the idea of the myriads of orbs revolving in space, scattered like so many grains of sand in the desert, gigantic mountains, the vast ocean, the rising and setting of the sun-all these we call beautiful, and yet there is a certain feeling of sadness attached to the contemplation, a sentiment of melancholy, and one might almost say a feeling of pleasurable pain. It is because we are struck by the infinity. We are no longer in presence of the Beautiful, but of the Sublime, which at first causes a feeling of depression and then one of elevation.

§ 4. To the Sublime is opposed the Ludicrous, which is caused by some incongruity, or contrast, or some sense of enforced solemnity and dignified demeanour. Professor Sully, in his latest book, "An Essay on Laughter," says: "The terms laughable and ludicrous may be employed interchangeably up to a certain point without risk of confusion. At the same time it is well to note that the second is used in stricter sense than the first. The term ludicrous seems to denote particularly what is not only a universal object of laughter, but an object of that more intellectual kind of laughter which implies a clear perception of relations. Closely connected with this emphasis on an intellectual element in the meaning of the term